197 



A DAY AFTER BURHEL. 



FATE had ordained that I should find myself in 

 the role of an "engineer" (as the term is used 

 in the East) in charge of one of the most diffi- 

 cult mountain roads in the world ; for the track 

 running from Kashmir through the Kara-Koram 

 Mountains to Chinese Turkestan is certainly that, 

 and is probably the most formidable road in all 

 "the seven climes" that is regularly used for 

 trade. Thus, instead of my days being occupied 

 among the typical surroundings of kutcherris 1 

 and clubs, dusty offices and not less dusty polo- 

 grounds, durbars, dinners, and the usual Indian 

 round of work and play, I had tasks such as 

 cutting a passable track over a glacier, building 

 a ferry-boat fit to carry traders and their goods 

 across the tumultuous waters of a mountain river, 

 blasting a path along the side of a precipice. I 

 considered myself fortunate, for in the important 

 matter of play were there not the finest stalking 



1 Kutcherris = law-courts. 



